Cultural Bias

Question 1

What is cultural bias

Answer 1

In psychology, cultural bias is the tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts and biases your judgement.

Question 2

What is alpha bias

Answer 2

Alpha bias refers to theories that assume there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups

Question 3

What does enduring mean

Answer 3

Lasting over a period of time

Question 4

What is an example of alpha bias

Answer 4

An example of alpha bias is the distinction that is often made between individualist cultures and collectivist cultures.
For instance, we would assume that members of an individualist culture are less conformist because they are less oriented towards group norms.

Question 5

What is an individualist culture

Answer 5

Independent of the group; they stress the needs of the individual over the needs of the group

Question 6

What is a collectivist culture

Answer 6

Dependant on members of the group; they place group concerns (e.g. group harmony and cohesion) over personal concerns

Question 7

what is research towards alpha bias

Answer 7

Takano and Osaka (1999)
Reviewed 15 studies that compared the US to Japan in terms of individualism and collectivism but their results suggested that the distinction between the two terms is no longer a useful one.

Question 8

What is beta bias

Answer 8

Beta bias refers to the theories that ignore or minimise cultural differences. They do this by assuming that all people are the same and therefore, it is reasonable to use the same theories/methods with all cultural groups.

Question 9

AO3: cultural bias

Answer 9

1. Encouraging indigenous psychologies to encounter ethnocentrism
2. Army IQ test
3. Psychologists travel more now so have better understanding of other cultures

Question 10

AO3 P1:
What is ethnocentrism

Answer 10

Ethnocentrism is when you measure or judge one’s own culture against another culture

Question 11

AO3 P1:
What are indigenous psychologies

Answer 11

The development of different groups of theories in different countries

Question 12

AO3 P1:
What is Afrocentrism

Answer 12

Afrocentrism is a movement whose central proposition is that all black people have their roots from Africa and that psychological theories concerning such people must be African-centred and express African values.

Question 13

AO3 P1:
What does Afrocentrism dispute

Answer 13

Afrocentrism disputes the view that European values are universally appropriate descriptions of human behaviour. It suggests that the life and culture of European people are irrelevant to the life and culture of people of African descent

Question 14

AO3 P1:
What has Afrocentrism led to

Answer 14

This has led to the development of theories relevant to the life and culture of African descent

Question 15

AO3 P2:
What is a real danger of culture bias in psychology

Answer 15

A real danger of culturally biased research is that it can create/reinforce stereotypes.
An example of the damage done by culturally biased research by psychology’s is the US army IQ test, used just before WW1

Question 16

AO3 P2:
What did the US IQ test show

Answer 16

That white Americans had the highest IQ, then European immigrants, and lastly African Americans, who had the lowest mental age

Question 17

AO3 P2:
What effect did the US IQ test have

Answer 17

It had a profound effect on the attitudes towards certain groups of people - black people.

Question 18

Bullet point AO3 P3

Answer 18

• researchers in psychology travel a lot more now then they did 50 years ago
• better understanding of cultures
• there are international conferences where researchers from Many different countries and cultures meet to discuss ideas
• this should reduce ethnocentrism bc there is a better understanding of cultural relativism and means that differences are identified and valued